Snow Day and Button Sorting...how---fun!

Hello everyone! Yes, we are again having yet another snow day at The Beach! This is very unusual...and disconcerting!--- despite its first-falling white pristine beauty.

Snow becomes tedious when the last drifts are still snarling iceberg-like on all the  streets. And my local grocery shelves are sadly bare. There were only two---TWO!---boxes of spaghetti on the shelf---and no toilet paper at all. (Lucky for us, we went to the big-box store during last week's snow and ice.)

Anyway since my family efficiently dispersed themselves to their snow day destinations well in advance of this current storm, I am home alone with my provisions and a nice quiet bit of time to watch TiVo'd "What Not to Wear" and "Hawaii Five-0" episodes while I sort through a big tin of vintage buttons that was my last flea market buy in December.

I bought the tin for a dollar, on a frigid grey Sunday. The dealer kindly threw in his other two containers of buttons and seemed happy y to get my dollar. I took the tin home and set it in the crafts closet til after the holidays....

Now, as I first began sorting I kinda could see why the dealer was happy enough with his dollar from me: anything "good" had already been removed from this stash of basic, mundane vintage sew-thrus.

I almost decided to toss them all, but sorted again, setting aside the many dozens (very sweet!) of tiny, real mother-of-pearl flower buttons and some doll sized little dark pearl buttons.

 Then I looked again (snowing, you know?) and found some fun color assortments...

in my colors...

And some for clients who like navy or purple tones...
 

And some charming beads [top right], including a mammoth pearl![top left] Two c. 1940s pennies and a German "nickel". And one lone perfect, tiny metal and pave' rhinestone beauty, smaller than your little fingernail.

I use the buttons on my hearts:



white Valentine hearts, on eBay now and etsy soon!

 The rest of the buttons and the tin were listed and sold! on eBay, how fun...much nicer than throwing them into the bin!  Very useful for a home sewer or crafter and I think the price was right.

Lotta entertainment for that dollar, hmmmm? Now if I can just get the tin of buttons to the post office........

love

lizzy

[gone to the beach]

Beach Books ~ Winter Reading

 I love books, love to read...and I read a LOT. Fast, too, lol. So I thought it would be fun to keep a new BOOKS page, with a running list of what I've read, starting with 2011.

I am listing in reverse order, most recent first. Nothing fancy or literary here...just fun and a lot of action. Oh and the stars are my personal opinions.

So---check out my list now and then? And if I list an author you like or you read one of my choices...I'd love to hear from you.

The photos on this page (except the last one, below) were kindly given to me by Michelle of Olde Farmhouse Simples. She has a shop on eBay [oldefarmhousesimples] and sells the most wonderfully authentic, primitive Maine farmhouse and barn treasures. Her photos and photo layouts/ props always inspire me...even though I can never achieve her "look".

love

           lizzy

   ...gone to the beach!

Winter Birds

So little and Lost---the Dovekie!
Brrrr! An unusually cold and very windy January so far here at the beach!

I've been reading online about the tiny Arctic Auks called "dovekies" that were blown ashore on Cape Cod by the high winds of the Christmas blizzard. Apparently people were calling the Wildlife Center and saying they saw tiny penguin-like birds in their yards! How fascinating! I'd never heard of a dovekie, let alone seen one...

MA Audubon photo

Apparently they choose to live their entire lives off-shore in the Arctic ocean (why!?!), only coming ashore to breed in the far north. It seems they cannot really walk any distance---picture sparrow-sized penguins---and cannot take flight from land, only from the water. Thus, they need to be rescued, watered, fed, then sent on their way, in the open ocean.

Since I had never seen or heard of dovekies, I was looking for them last week when I finally go to the snowy beach.

 And much to my amazement, I found one! Sadly, it was a washed-ashore, dead dovekie.

A sad but interesting find on my winter beach....

love

               lizzy

gone to the beach.....